Hated
by bellacatbee
Summary: AU: Sam, now a teacher, thinks Gabriel the janitor is just like those jerks that used to tease him back in school. He doesn't understand its Gabriel's poor attempt at flirting. Sam/Gabriel.


The first time they meet Sam hates him. He reminds Sam of the boys who used to tease him in school, all cocksure and arrogant and laughing at in-jokes that Sam didn't get but thought were aimed at him. It doesn't matter that Gabriel is the janitor. He still makes Sam feel inferior to him. Every time he laughs Sam thinks he's laughing at him. Sam doesn't stop hating him the second time they meet or the third. Gabriel never seems to change. He's maddening like that.

Sam's a teacher's aide but he spends most of his time dealing with the schools' trouble children. They're the kids who nobody believes anything of, whose own parents have given up on. Some of them are violent, lashing out at everyone and everything and some of them are so insular they never say a word. Sam tries to help them, tries to understand them. He loves his job but he hates those moments when he has to go find Gabriel and ask him for help because one of the students has thrown paint all over the art room because Sam asked him to sit down or someone has smashed a chair – that time was memorable. Sam should be angry at the students but they remind him a little bit of Dean, vulnerable and hurting and without anyone to go to because he had to be responsible so he's never angry at them. Dean's made something of himself now. He's that laid back teacher all the kids love, a school heartthrob who's always up to his elbows in grease and Sam can't help but be proud of how his big brother has sorted himself out.

Sam has other things to worry about. Adam is the name of that worry and he drifts around the house like a thunder cloud. Sam wants to help him but he can't reach him. Adam is already new and unpopular, hanging out in school with his teacher brother doesn't add to his street cred. Sam is so relieved when another teacher volunteers to give Adam some extra attention. It's what he needs, a male figure he can look up to who isn't one of his brothers, someone he can go to outside the family. Sam concentrates on trying to get through to his students and hopes slowly that Adam will begin to bloom.

It's around the hundredth time he has to ask for Gabriel's help that Sam begins to warm to him. A food fight this time and Sam can't deny he got involved in it. Everyone was laughing at the end and it had felt good to just let go but now he's got flour all over him and the classroom is a wreck. Sam is waiting for some lame joke but as he rounds the corner he sees Gabriel standing there, leaning on his mop and talking to Adam. Adam is actually smiling. Sam stands back, not wanting to interrupt them but as he watches Gabriel fishes a lollipop from his shirt pocket and hands it to Adam. He ruffles Adam's hair and the boy rolls his eyes at him and then sticks the sweet into his mouth, loping off. This is a side of Gabriel Sam has never seen before. When the awful joke comes, as it unfailingly must, it doesn't sting as badly as it might have done.

Outside of work is where Sam really starts to warm up to Gabriel. He comes to one of Dean's BBQs and brings a load of beer which puts him in Dean's good books right up front. They sit out in the yard, laughing at Dean's inability to get a steak to cook anything but burnt to a crisp and while Gabriel doesn't just talk to Sam, its Sam he talks to the most. Sam finds to his surprise that Gabriel has two brothers working in the school. "That's something we have in common." Gabriel says, smiling at him and Sam grins back and says, "Good thing for nepotism, huh?" He doesn't know how Gabriel will take that but the shorter man laughs and claps him on the back. His hand stays there for a little while longer and it's warm and Sam suddenly feels flushed. Michael, one of Gabriel's brothers, is supposed to be his ride home, the designated driver but when finally Gabriel starts looking around for him it appears Michael already left. Gabriel stands on their front porch calling Michael but by the time the second call goes straight to voice mail he's stomping up and down and Sam's already made up his mind to offer him the couch for the night.

He goes upstairs to get a spare pillow and blankets and Adam is on his bed, the door wide open, half dressed in just his t-shirt and boxers. Sam blinks but doesn't say anything. He doesn't want to spook Adam so he's startled when Adam starts talking to him. "Do you think it's possible," He says and it seems to say he's trying to fathom out the answer to himself "to fall in love with someone because of the sound of their voice?" He looks terribly introspective and Sam smiles at him. "Yeah, I think it is." He says and goes downstairs. Gabriel and Dean have dug out another couple of beers from somewhere and everyone else has drifted off home. They get drunker while Sam fixes the couch and at the end he hulls Dean off to bed and then comes down to see to Gabriel. "You're very pretty," Gabriel slurs at him, trying to pet his hair as Sam manhandles him into the blankets. "Pretty and tall."

He squints up at Sam, smiling at him and Sam pretends his heart doesn't skip a beat.

In the morning Gabriel is in their kitchen making fried toast. Sam pours himself a glass of orange juice and casually mentions he thinks Adam might have a crush on someone. He wonders if Gabriel might know because he's seen Gabriel talking to Adam in the halls but if he does then he keeps quiet about it, just nods and continues covering his toast in powdered sugar much to Sam's disgust. Later Sam drives him home and he finds himself looking at Gabriel out of the corner of his eye. "You think I'm pretty." He mutters, sort of pleased with that and when Gabriel asks him what he just said pretends he was making an observation on the weather.

At school on the Monday Sam finds himself trying his best to make sure there are not outbursts, no angry irruptions because he wants to hide from Gabriel. He's had a few days to think over what happened and now he finds everything a little silly. Gabriel was drunk. Gabriel will always be Gabriel, even if he can be disarmingly nice from time to time. He's never serious about anything and possibly what he slurred up at Sam that evening was nothing more than another one of his jokes. Does Sam really want to open himself up to someone who in all likelihood will simply take that moment of vulnerability and use it to torment him forever more? No, Sam doesn't want that. His students are meticulously behaved as if they understand the strain Sam is under and they don't cause any trouble. Finally it's Gabriel who corners him. He appears suddenly in an otherwise empty hallway after the bell as rung and the students have fled for the day and beckons Sam over to him. As far as Sam knows no one is allowed inside the janitor's closet. Gabriel keeps it locked when he's not there. There are all sorts of rumours about what he has inside – secret, illicit alcohol, a poker table – but Sam's always simply assumed he kept it locked so none of the students could get their hands of any of the dangerous chemicals he had to use to keep the place clean. Instead he finds it lined with walls of paper towels and fairy lights strung across the ceiling. There are blankets on the floor and pillows, a makeshift bed and Sam is rather impressed with Gabriel's ingenuity.

"It's a fallout shelter, in case of nuclear attack." Gabriel says and wiggles his eyebrows. "Thought you might like to share it with me. Only room for two."

"I wasn't aware we were in danger from imminent nuclear attack." Sam says dryly but his heart is beating faster. He wonders when Gabriel realised or if all of this teasing has been Gabriel's way of trying to tell Sam he liked him and Sam has been too scared to realising flirting for what it is. Gabriel is bad at flirting if that's the case, Sam thinks although he goes into the closet and stands there awkwardly for a few minutes as Gabriel locks up.

Their first kiss is awkward too. Gabriel stands on tiptoes and Sam has to bend his neck in a painful way. They're both laughing as they snuggle down on the blankets and lying down they can get so much closer, face to face. Sam knows he should be horrified, breaking rules like this and sex on school grounds is pretty much the biggest taboo there is to break but at least Gabriel isn't a student. Just a maddening man who makes Sam gasp in surprise and who nibbles that spot on his neck that makes Sam melt, pulling Gabriel against him and wedging his knee between Gabriel's thighs, pushing and rutting until Gabriel stifles a moan and then clings against him, laughing softly into his neck.

Sam doesn't know how he could ever have found that laugh something to be fearful of. It sounds musical now and he knows he never wants to go another day without hearing it. "Think you might want to come back to my place?" Gabriel says after a while, petting Sam's hair and it's soothing the way he does that. "I've got a fallout shelter there too but the beds much better. "


End file.
